Very Quiet Productivity / Light Gaming Skylake Planning

[amp88]

Hi all,

 

Long time viewer, first time poster!

 

So, I'm planning on replacing my current desktop (which is about 7 and a half years old, and based around an Intel Q9450) with a new system based around one of the 2 'K' Skylake CPUs which will be available at launch.

 

1. Budget & Location

I live in Scotland, in the UK. I don't have a hard limit to the budget, as such, but somewhere around £900-1000 GBP ($1400-1550 USD / $1850-2050 CAD).

 

2. Aim

A reasonably powerful system which performs well with productivity/content creation (e.g. photo editing in Lightroom & video editing in Lightworks), light gaming (1080p, nothing exhaustive, I'll be using a MSI GeForce GTX 760 2GB TWIN FROZR from my current desktop) and is very quiet overall, with near-silence at idle and low noise under heavy load. I will probably be doing modest CPU overclocking.

 

3. Monitors

I'll be using the 3 monitors from my current desktop setup, but only as a productivity choice, not for gaming (max resolution is 1900x1200).

 

4. Peripherals

Sticking with my Kensington Trackball and Logitech wireless keyboard from my current desktop. I'll be buying an OEM/System Builder Windows license, probably Windows 7 64-bit SP1.

 

5. Why are you upgrading?

I'm really CPU-limited for the heavier tasks I do (such as the photo/video editing mentioned above). To give an example, it currently takes somewhere in the region of 3-6 seconds to fully load a 1:1 zoom in Lightroom for a RAW file from my camera (Canon 650D/T4i). During that 3-6 seconds the CPU is pegged at (or very near) 100%.

 

OK, so because the Skylake chips and motherboards haven't been released yet those are unresolved at the moment, to some extent. For the CPU I'm currently caught between the i5-6600K and the i7-6700K. The 6600K will almost certainly offer better value for money, but the 6700K will be a bit better in productivity tasks. The question is whether it's worth the extra cost. I'm unresolved on that. For the motherboard I'll be getting a mid-range Z170. I'm not really bothered about the brand or looks of the board, and I assume the feature set will be quite similar across them.

 

With that being said, here is my current PC Part Picker build:

CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 67.8 CFM Fluid Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooler  (£60.23 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory  (£104.99 @ Novatech)
Storage: Samsung SM951 256GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive  (£119.10 @ Scan.co.uk)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£49.14 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 760 2GB TWIN FROZR Video Card  (Purchased For £0.00)
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 (Titanium) ATX Mid Tower Case  (£82.86 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: Corsair 760W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (Purchased For £85.00)
Optical Drive: LG WH12LS38 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer  (Purchased For £0.00)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 OEM (64-bit)  (£67.95 @ Ebuyer)
Case Fan: be quiet! SilentWings 2 60.4 CFM 140mm  Fan  (£15.77 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £585.04

 

This total doesn't include a CPU or motherboard. There are no UK launch retail prices for the Skylake i5-6600K or i7-6700K available just now, but the i5-4690K currently retails around £175 and the i7-4790K is about £250). A mid-range Z97 board is currently around, say £90-120.

 

So, an approximate current total for an i5-6600K build would be around £870, and an approximate i7-6700K would be around £945.

 

So, what I'd like is some input on those current selections above, and perhaps a little on the CPU choice too. Apart from the components which I already have (namely the GTX 760 2GB TWIN FROZR, the Corsair AX760 and the Blu-Ray burner) and probably the Fractal R5 case, I'm wide open to suggestions on changing the rest.

 

Let me explain my rationale for each of the selections above:

 

CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 - This seems to be to be the best balance in terms of cooling performance against noise level. I really want very quiet operation, but I'd like to have a bit of headroom for CPU overclocking too. Alternatives I've considered would be the Noctua NH-D15 (which would probably be better for cooling, but noisier than the Dark Rock Pro 3) and the Thermalright True Spirit 140 Power (which is cheaper than the Dark Rock Pro 3 and NH-D15, but worse in cooling and noise).

Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 - 2 x 8GB kit for possible future expansion. Quite low profile kit to aid in any clearance issues (especially important for the Dark Rock Pro 3 or NH-D15, depending on the motherboard layout).

Storage: Samsung SM951 256GB M.2-2280 - So, this current selection is for the AHCI SM951 part, but ideally I'd swap that out for the NVMe, if it's going to be available in the coming weeks. The time seems to be right for M.2, and the Z170 chipset seems like a perfect companion for it. If I didn't go the M.2 route, I'd probably get the 256GB Samsung 850 Pro, so the price difference is quite negligible.

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM - I'm happy to take a 2TB slightly slower Barracuda over a slightly faster 1TB WD Black, for about the same money. This second drive will mostly be used for temporary local backups and miscellaneous files. The pictures/videos I'll be editing are stored on a different machine on the network.

Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 760 2GB TWIN FROZR - This is the GPU in my current desktop. I know it's not particularly powerful, but it does me OK in light gaming. A beefier GPU would probably help out a bit in video editing, but on my current system I'm definitely CPU-limited when rendering. If the 760 proves to be a bit of a bottleneck I'm open to upgrading in the future, but for the moment I'll be sticking with it and seeing how it copes.

Case: Fractal Design Define R5 (Titanium) - The R5 seems like a great balance between cooling performance and very low noise operation. Another plus is that it appears to be really nice to work in, and have good cable management options.

Power Supply: Corsair 760W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply - I got this manufacturer refurbished for about £85, which seemed like too good an opportunity to miss. 760W maximum output is certainly overkill for a single GPU system (especially a 760...), but the 80 Plus Platinum rating and silent/very quiet fan (depending on load) were ideal for my needs.

Optical Drive: LG WH12LS38 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer - Will be keeping this from my current desktop. I have some backups on Blu-Ray.

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 OEM (64-bit) - It's a bit of a toss-up between 7 and 8.1 (I don't want to take the plunge on 10 at the moment...). 8.1 seems to really rub some people the wrong way, and I don't think there are any 'killer' features on 8.1 that I'll miss if I stick with 7.

Case Fan: be quiet! SilentWings 2 60.4 CFM 140mm  Fan - If I get the R5 case it 'only' comes with 2 140mm fans (one intake, one exhaust). I'd either add the SilentWings 2 as a second intake (mounting it beneath the default intake), or move the default exhaust below the default intake and add the SilentWings 2 as an exhaust. I'm open to other 140mm case fans (perhaps the Noctua NF-A14?). I'll be mounting the PSU with the fan facing downwards (i.e. intake from underneath the case, which is dust-filtered on the R5), so I should get pretty decent airflow through the case.

 

So, if you made it this far, thanks for reading! Let me know any thoughts or ideas you have, please. If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask away.

[jimakos234]

Having Windows 8.1 and 10 will make many games and apps perform quite better, but do not expect

a huge difference. I would say get 8.1 if you find it for about 10 bucks more

[KamiKatze]

Hi all,

 

Long time viewer, first time poster!

 

So, I'm planning on replacing my current desktop (which is about 7 and a half years old, and based around an Intel Q9450) with a new system based around one of the 2 'K' Skylake CPUs which will be available at launch.

 

1. Budget & Location

I live in Scotland, in the UK. I don't have a hard limit to the budget, as such, but somewhere around £900-1000 GBP ($1400-1550 USD / $1850-2050 CAD). The PSU in the Parts Picker list below is listed as £0.00, but it actually cost me around £85, so that has to be factored into the budget.

 

2. Aim

A reasonably powerful system which performs well with productivity/content creation (e.g. photo editing in Lightroom & video editing in Lightworks), light gaming (1080p, nothing exhaustive, I'll be using a MSI GeForce GTX 760 2GB TWIN FROZR from my current desktop) and is very quiet overall, with near-silence at idle and low noise under heavy load. I will probably be doing modest CPU overclocking.

 

3. Monitors

I'll be using the 3 monitors from my current desktop setup, but only as a productivity choice, not for gaming (max resolution is 1900x1200).

 

4. Peripherals

Sticking with my Kensington Trackball and Logitech wireless keyboard from my current desktop. I'll be buying an OEM/System Builder Windows license, probably Windows 7 64-bit SP1.

 

5. Why are you upgrading?

I'm really CPU-limited for the heavier tasks I do (such as the photo/video editing mentioned above). To give an example, it currently takes somewhere in the region of 3-6 seconds to fully load a 1:1 zoom in Lightroom for a RAW file from my camera (Canon 650D/T4i). During that 3-6 seconds the CPU is pegged at (or very near) 100%.

 

OK, so because the Skylake chips and motherboards haven't been released yet those are unresolved at the moment, to some extent. For the CPU I'm currently caught between the i5-6600K and the i7-6700K. The 6600K will almost certainly offer better value for money, but the 6700K will be a bit better in productivity tasks. The question is whether it's worth the extra cost. I'm unresolved on that. For the motherboard I'll be getting a mid-range Z170. I'm not really bothered about the brand or looks of the board, and I assume the feature set will be quite similar across them.

 

With that being said, here is my current PC Part Picker build:

 

CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 67.8 CFM Fluid Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooler  (£60.23 @ Scan.co.uk)

Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory  (£104.99 @ Novatech)

Storage: Samsung SM951 256GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive  (£119.10 @ Scan.co.uk)

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£49.14 @ Aria PC)

Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 760 2GB TWIN FROZR Video Card  (Purchased For £0.00)

Case: Fractal Design Define R5 (Titanium) ATX Mid Tower Case  (£82.86 @ Scan.co.uk)

Power Supply: Corsair 760W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (Purchased For £0.00)

Optical Drive: LG WH12LS38 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer  (Purchased For £0.00)

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 OEM (64-bit)  (£67.95 @ Ebuyer)

Case Fan: be quiet! SilentWings 2 60.4 CFM 140mm  Fan  (£15.77 @ Scan.co.uk)

Total: £500.04 (Actually £585, including the AX760 - see 'Budget & Location' above)

 

This total doesn't include a CPU or motherboard. There are no UK launch retail prices for the Skylake i5-6600K or i7-6700K available just now, but the i5-4690K currently retails around £175 and the i7-4790K is about £250). A mid-range Z97 board is currently around, say £90-120.

 

So, an approximate current total for an i5-6600K build would be around £870, and an approximate i7-6700K would be around £945.

 

So, what I'd like is some input on those current selections above, and perhaps a little on the CPU choice too. Apart from the components which I already have (namely the GTX 760 2GB TWIN FROZR, the Corsair AX760 and the Blu-Ray burner) and probably the Fractal R5 case, I'm wide open to suggestions on changing the rest.

 

Let me explain my rationale for each of the selections above:

 

CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 - This seems to be to be the best balance in terms of cooling performance against noise level. I really want very quiet operation, but I'd like to have a bit of headroom for CPU overclocking too. Alternatives I've considered would be the Noctua NH-D15 (which would probably be better for cooling, but noisier than the Dark Rock Pro 3) and the Thermalright True Spirit 140 Power (which is cheaper than the Dark Rock Pro 3 and NH-D15, but worse in cooling and noise).

Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 - 2 x 8GB kit for possible future expansion. Quite low profile kit to aid in any clearance issues (especially important for the Dark Rock Pro 3 or NH-D15, depending on the motherboard layout).

Storage: Samsung SM951 256GB M.2-2280 - So, this current selection is for the AHCI SM951 part, but ideally I'd swap that out for the NVMe, if it's going to be available in the coming weeks. The time seems to be right for M.2, and the Z170 chipset seems like a perfect companion for it. If I didn't go the M.2 route, I'd probably get the 256GB Samsung 850 Pro, so the price difference is quite negligible.

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM - I'm happy to take a 2TB slightly slower Barracuda over a slightly faster 1TB WD Black, for about the same money. This second drive will mostly be used for temporary local backups and miscellaneous files. The pictures/videos I'll be editing are stored on a different machine on the network.

Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 760 2GB TWIN FROZR - This is the GPU in my current desktop. I know it's not particularly powerful, but it does me OK in light gaming. A beefier GPU would probably help out a bit in video editing, but on my current system I'm definitely CPU-limited when rendering. If the 760 proves to be a bit of a bottleneck I'm open to upgrading in the future, but for the moment I'll be sticking with it and seeing how it copes.

Case: Fractal Design Define R5 (Titanium) - The R5 seems like a great balance between cooling performance and very low noise operation. Another plus is that it appears to be really nice to work in, and have good cable management options.

Power Supply: Corsair 760W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply - I got this manufacturer refurbished for about £85, which seemed like too good an opportunity to miss. 760W maximum output is certainly overkill for a single GPU system (especially a 760...), but the 80 Plus Platinum rating and silent/very quiet fan (depending on load) were ideal for my needs.

Optical Drive: LG WH12LS38 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer - Will be keeping this from my current desktop. I have some backups on Blu-Ray.

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 OEM (64-bit) - It's a bit of a toss-up between 7 and 8.1 (I don't want to take the plunge on 10 at the moment...). 8.1 seems to really rub some people the wrong way, and I don't think there are any 'killer' features on 8.1 that I'll miss if I stick with 7.

Case Fan: be quiet! SilentWings 2 60.4 CFM 140mm  Fan - If I get the R5 case it 'only' comes with 2 140mm fans (one intake, one exhaust). I'd either add the SilentWings 2 as a second intake (mounting it beneath the default intake), or move the default exhaust below the default intake and add the SilentWings 2 as an exhaust. I'm open to other 140mm case fans (perhaps the Noctua NF-A14?). I'll be mounting the PSU with the fan facing downwards (i.e. intake from underneath the case, which is dust-filtered on the R5), so I should get pretty decent airflow through the case.

 

So, if you made it this far, thanks for reading! Let me know any thoughts or ideas you have, please. If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask away.

 

What a solid first post. Welcome to the forums!

 

Your plan looks good. As far as fans go, I'd recommend putting the two fractal fans in the front and the silent wing in the back. I've also done this for a long time until my ears decided that the fractal fans were too loud at idle so i replaced them with even mroe silent wings 2 -> an upgrade worth considering for you.

 

CPU-wise I'd really go with the i7 if your work benefits from the extra hyperthreading.

 

The only thing i would change on your build is the hard drive. Change that to a 5400 rpm drive like the Western Digital Green 2 TB. It makes a lot of difference in terms of silence and since it's just a HDD for local files it doesn't have to be super fast either. Besides that, i have made the experience that WD greens are still rpetty fast comapred to other hard drives.

[comicsansms]

What a solid first post. Welcome to the forums!

 

Your plan looks good. As far as fans go, I'd recommend putting the two fractal fans in the front and the silent wing in the back. I've also done this for a long time until my ears decided that the fractal fans were too loud at idle so i replaced them with even mroe silent wings 2 -> an upgrade worth considering for you.

 

CPU-wise I'd really go with the i7 if your work benefits from the extra hyperthreading.

 

The only thing i would change on your build is the hard drive. Change that to a 5400 rpm drive like the Western Digital Green 2 TB. It makes a lot of difference in terms of silence and since it's just a HDD for local files it doesn't have to be super fast either. Besides that, i have made the experience that WD greens are still rpetty fast comapred to other hard drives.

NO DON'T change the HDD to 5400RPM drive, That would slow down the programs running off the HDD.

That is like buying a Ferrari with a V12 engine and a 3rd's of the cylinders are disabled despite that the price is the same.

Yes it is quieter but you are losing performance and also the power usage isn't effected. 

[KamiKatze]

NO DON'T change the HDD to 5400RPM drive, That would slow down the programs running off the HDD.

That is like buying a Ferrari with a V12 engine and a 3rd's of the cylinders are disabled despite that the price is the same.

Yes it is quieter but you are losing performance and also the power usage isn't effected. 

 

Did you even read the original post? He's just storing local data on it.

 

And btw. i have had a 5400 rpm drive for a long time and i couldn't even tell the difference in day to day use. It's not a SSD but it's still a reasonably fast hard drive. Even if he decided to install programs on it, it wouldn't be the end of the world. It would still be reasonably fast. And since silence is the highest premise of OP, I'd highly recommend to stay far away from any hard drive faster than 5400 rpm! It's an enormous difference!

[amp88]

Having Windows 8.1 and 10 will make many games and apps perform quite better, but do not expect

a huge difference. I would say get 8.1 if you find it for about 10 bucks more

 

I'll take a look into the performance difference. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

What a solid first post. Welcome to the forums!

 

Your plan looks good. As far as fans go, I'd recommend putting the two fractal fans in the front and the silent wing in the back. I've also done this for a long time until my ears decided that the fractal fans were too loud at idle so i replaced them with even mroe silent wings 2 -> an upgrade worth considering for you.

 

CPU-wise I'd really go with the i7 if your work benefits from the extra hyperthreading.

 

The only thing i would change on your build is the hard drive. Change that to a 5400 rpm drive like the Western Digital Green 2 TB. It makes a lot of difference in terms of silence and since it's just a HDD for local files it doesn't have to be super fast either. Besides that, i have made the experience that WD greens are still rpetty fast comapred to other hard drives.

 

Thank you! Good input on the noise from the Fractal fans. I had worried that they may be a little too loud for me. I think I'll probably try them out for a while and see if it's worth replacing them, as you did. A 5400rpm drive might make more sense, you're right. The vast majority of access to the HDD will be from across gigabit LAN, and of relatively large files (so as long as the large block/sequential performance is good enough to saturate (or come close to saturating) gigabit speeds it shouldn't be a problem. Almost all of the data accesses which are important to my usage in terms of performance will be to/from SSD storage.

 

NO DON'T change the HDD to 5400RPM drive, That would slow down the programs running off the HDD.

That is like buying a Ferrari with a V12 engine and a 3rd's of the cylinders are disabled despite that the price is the same.

Yes it is quieter but you are losing performance and also the power usage isn't effected. 

 

Thanks for your input, but I think perhaps I didn't make myself clear enough. Read my reply from just above to KamiKatze. There will be almost nothing I do on the system where the performance of the HDD storage is that important. The files I will be editing are stored on my home server (accessed via the LAN), and all my applications, games etc will be stored on the SSD. If I run out of storage space on the SSD in the future I'll just add more (either in the form or another M.2 drive (via a second M.2 slot in the motherboard, if present, or a PCIe add-in card) or a SATA SSD).

 

Did you even read the original post? He's just storing local data on it.

 

And btw. i have had a 5400 rpm drive for a long time and i couldn't even tell the difference in day to day use. It's not a SSD but it's still a reasonably fast hard drive. Even if he decided to install programs on it, it wouldn't be the end of the world. It would still be reasonably fast. And since silence is the highest premise of OP, I'd highly recommend to stay far away from any hard drive faster than 5400 rpm! It's an enormous difference!

 

Thanks again

[amp88]

A quick update, now that the Skylake chips and Z170 boards have been released. I haven't ordered any more components yet, because I'm waiting to see how the availability and pricing for the SM951 NVMe drives pans out. At the moment the only UK retailer where I can find the NVMe variant listed is Scan, who have it for pre order (due in stock on the 18th of August) at £161.10. This is quite a premium over the AHCI version, which is sitting around £120. I hope this is an artificially inflated price and that when the NVMe variant is available in greater numbers the price comes down to somewhere closer to the AHCI version.

 

So, with that said, here's my current parts list:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£283.87 @ CCL Computers)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 67.8 CFM Fluid Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooler  (£60.23 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: Asus Z170-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (£121.97 @ Dabs)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  (£138.65 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Storage: Samsung SM951 256GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive  (£119.10 @ Scan.co.uk)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Green 3TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£76.74 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 760 2GB TWIN FROZR Video Card  (Purchased For £0.00)
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 (Titanium) ATX Mid Tower Case  (£77.71 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: Corsair 760W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (Purchased For £85.00)
Optical Drive: LG WH12LS38 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer  (Purchased For £0.00)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM (64-bit)  (£74.95 @ CCL Computers)
Case Fan: be quiet! SilentWings 2 60.4 CFM 140mm  Fan  (£15.77 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £1053.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-08-08 00:04 BST+0100

 

The major changes are that I've taken the advice of jimakos234 and KamiKatze and moved to Windows 8.1 (instead of 7) and a 3TB Western Digital Green drive (instead of a 2TB Seagate Barracuda). I've also decided to go for the i7-6700K, instead of the i5-6600K, and selected the ASUS Z170-A as the motherboard I think offers the best balance between features and price.

 

Something that's worth noting is that the RAM in the above PartPicker list is currently showing £138.65 from Overclockers.co.uk. However, the same model (CMK16GX4M2B3000C15) is available for pre order from Scan for £117.79. I assume it's because of a glitch that it's not listed on PartPicker from Scan. I'm considering getting the DDR4-3000 instead of DDR4-2666 just to hopefully give a little more headroom for overclocking, and because the price difference isn't currently significant. I realise that the performance improvement from that slightly faster RAM (at stock speeds, and possibly overclocked...) won't be too significant in real world applications though.

 

I think those are the only salient changes have been made to the parts list. I'm still open to suggestions and other input though, so please feel free to let me know.

 

Since the original post my PSU has also arrived, so I've put a few pictures of it up in my new gallery. I'm hoping to do a build log with pictures for the main system.

 

Thanks for reading.